By: Axel Elizondo The Champions League is a soccer tournament that takes place every year and involving the top leagues in Europe. This year the champions league was filled with some of the best teams in Europe. In total there are 32 teams that participate and only one team gets to lift the trophy. In order to qualify for the tournament, teams participate in the group stage before advancing into the group stage, the teams that place on top will then take part in the actual tournament. Another way that teams can enter is if they win the UEFA Europa League and that is another tournament but with different teams. The teams that participated in this year's tournament were Liverpool, Tottenham, Ajax, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Celtic, Benfica, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Juventus, Manchester City, Manchester United, Monaco, Napoli, PSG, Porto, Real Madrid, Roma, Valencia, and Lyon. Liverpool and Tottenham are facing each other in the Champions League final that will take place on June 6. This is the first year that two English teams will face each other in the Champions League final. All 32 teams compete from the very start and they are placed in different groups, in order to advance to the next round you have to place first or second place and there are four rounds including the final. The number of points matter and also goal difference matters because that can be another way that you can go into the next round. The points act as standings for each group, for example, teams can get max 12 points if they win all four games, only top two advances from the group to the tournament. The first game that I am gonna talk about is Liverpool v.s. Barcelona. In the first leg of the semi-final, Barcelona won 3-0, with goals by Luis Suarez, and two goals by Leo Messi. In the second leg of the semi-final, Liverpool won 4-0, advancing to the final. Divock Origi scored the opener of the game, Gini Wijnaldum scored the second and third goal of the game which leveled the game to 3-3, and Divock Origi scored the late winner of the game and it gave Liverpool the lead. Liverpool then won 4-3 on aggregate. The second game that im gonna talk about is Ajax v.s Tottenham which was the second semi-final game. Ajax won the first leg 1-0 with a goal by Donny Van De Beek. In the second leg, Tottenham won 3-2 with goals by Matthijs De Ligt, Hakim Ziyech, and Lucas Moura who scored a hat-trick and helped lead Tottenham to the Champions League Final to play against Liverpool which is also an English team. The final will be on June 6th and it will be played in Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.
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There are only 4 teams left in the overall tournament. There are teams that have eliminated the big boys. Which contend as the highest teams in the tournament. Those teams were the ones that would win and had the highest win rate. All 4 teams will play this week and next week to try to get a spot for the final on June 1. Here are my predictions for this big tournament.
For the first game which is Tottenham vs Ajax, I have in mind that Ajax will win but also Tottenham could win it’s a 50/50 game. But I have Ajax winning this game but there are two games and Ajax is like a mini Barcelona which is one of the best teams in the Spanish league. This team the youngest team ever. This team has the full potential to go and try to beat this team. The second game which is Barcelona vs Liverpool and for this game I have Barcelona winning this series. Barcelona has top players and the one and only Messi. He supports his team and works well with his teammates. So they have a better chance of winning. For the Finals which is in June I have Barcelona and Ajax but who knows what could happen. After these two first games, we will pretty much see who has the most advantage to go to the finals. The stadium that they will play is in Madrid and this tournament is Road to Madrid’19. The Venue for this event changes every year. The team that has the most championships is Real Madrid but they have been eliminated. With the NBA Regular Season ending, all the basketball fans are extremely ecstatic for what’s to come: the 2019 NBA Playoffs. The playoffs is an yearly tournament that is held after the conclusion of the regular season. The best eight teams of the western conference play each other until there is a winner, who plays the winner of the eastern conference. The winner of those two teams are named NBA Champions. The champions receive rings to show off their victory over the other 29 teams, and get a banner to hang up in their arena. In case you don’t know how the playoffs work, here it is: the Playoffs are a series of postseason games to determine who the best team in the NBA is. Every players ultimate goal is to win an NBA championship, but few succeed. To enter the playoffs, you must be a top eight team statistically in your conference. Once you’re in, they pair the 1st seed with the 8th seed, the 2nd seed with the 7th seed, so on and so forth. In every round you play, you must beat the other team 4 times before moving on to the next round, which means in every round, at least 4 games will be played, and the maximum amount of games played are 7, so if you get a perfect run with 0 losses, you will be 16-0, and an NBA Champion. The team closest to ever achieving 16-0 were your one and only Golden State Warriors; they went 16-1 just last year, losing one game in the Finals against LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers. The 2019 NBA Playoffs have a variety of excellent players, all with their specialties, (and some with multiple specialties). Sports analysts believe that the Golden State Warriors are the most likely team to be named NBA Champions, considering they have won 3 of them in the last 4 years, which means they are the 2x reigning NBA Champions. The Warriors have 2 former league MVP’s (Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant), who are both two of the top 5 players in the league currently. The Warriors defeated the Los Angeles Clipper in the first round, though many people were surprised that they pushed the Warriors to a game 6, considering they don’t have any All-Stars. The Warriors are now playing the Houston Rockets, and it is currently 2-2, Warriors. Rockets defeated the Utah Jazz 4-1, though the Jazz had a rather unique defensive plan to stop James Harden from dropping a 40 bomb. Portland Trailblazers and Oklahoma City Thunder fought to their best potential, but Damian Lillard was too much for Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Dame hit a series-winning 37 foot shot at home, and stared down the camera as he got bombarded by hugs from his teammates and cheers from the fans. (Click Here for the link of that video) Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs also played in the first round, and Denver came out on top. Portland Trailblazers and Denver are currently tied, 2-2. Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are favored to represent the East in the finals. They are currently playing the Boston Celtics after sweeping (sweeping; beating an opposing team in a series without losing a single game) the Detroit Pistons in the first round. The Celtics also swept their matchup, the Indiana Pacers. Bucks and Celtics are currently 3-1, Bucks, and one more win for the Bucks will advance them to the Conference finals. |